It’s not even upgrade, even twenty years ago, most of them were either always rinsing or on some sort of intermittent timer. I guess when they were just a big communal trench it didn’t make sense for them to be flushed by an individual. (UK / various Europe)
Why would I have to abduct my alternate? Can’t I just make a living for myself in the the other universe? I’d be going to one that had much more liberal ideas about identity and needing money. I’m old enough that decisions made during my lifetime could* have lead to fairly different state if lefty / anarchist forces had been more successful than oligarchs and right-wing reactionaries.
*I’m assuming the point of multiverses is they don’t need to be highly likely, just logically possible.